Ending the year on an up note

I thought about writing a year end recap, but then I saw my traffic count for the month at 00 GMT (4PM PST), and thought that would do just as well at telling the story for this year. After a slight dip in October and November, WUWT has reached a new high at nearly 900,000 page views this month.

Click for a larger image

Not bad for a 12 month growth. My hit counter, as of this writing, stands at:

6,840,995 hits

In December 2007, I hadn’t even broken 500,000.

Thanks to each and every one of you for visiting, contributing, and commenting. Thanks especially to the moderating team who keeps the temperature of this blog down whilst I think up new topics.

Here were the top 7 most popular posts in 2008, in case you missed them:

OT and anecdotal, but…with the close of December 2008 I can now summarize
The year at Bangor, Maine (KBGR):

*Anomalies:

Dec 08 = 24.4F (-0.1F)

Year 08 = 44.45F (-0.25F)

21st Cent. = 44.50F (-0.20F) (Eight years to date)

Warmest year 2006 (+2.1F), Coldest year(s) 2003 & 2004 (-1.3F)

*Based on 1971-2000

Caveat: These figures have been compiled from the raw monthly climate forms (CF6)
for Bangor Intl. Airport. These data have not been manipulated or mangled by Mr. Mann, nor massaged by NOAA and Dr. Hansen. They were not submitted for approval or editing by the NCDC. I am independently wealthy (in a manner of speaking) and consequently to not rely on royalties from the oil industry. The climatic average upon which these figures are based were from the original summary obtained from the Caribou, Maine WFO and differ from the more recently revised GISS data.
Having said all that:

No global warming here!

Mucho thanks to Anthony (and congratulations) and to the readers of WUWT. Have a Happy New Year. Dress warm.

* Around 6-8 JAN 2009 North / NorthEast USA Extremely SERIOUS Massive snow deluges and blizzards with build up of smaller blizzards from start /2nd Jan. (85% confidence). “These are likely to be WORSE than the snow and blizzard deluges which have already battered much of USA and the whole of Canada” said Piers

Congratulations Anthony and Team! What a great job… this blog has taught me much over the last year. Yes it has informed me about the climate, the sorry state of climate studies, but mostly I have learned about the value of the clearheaded, calm approach that Anthony and team have brought to this debate. Thanks again for the hard work that each of you brings to this enterprise.

Do you think it’s time for an update of “A look at temperature anomalies for all 4 global metrics”. It’s always fun to revisit a classic.

May the new year bring more success and the further crumbling of the AGW hypothesis…

Uh, I may be responsible for about 100,000 of those hits myself. (Looking down sheepishly, scuffling shoes in confetti and discarded party hats that were made from the carcasses of trees snatched screaming from Gaia’s bosom).

Using U.S. HCN Data adjusted for urbanization effects, time-of-observations, station moves, and instrument changes for all the stations in VA from 1879 to 1995 there has been a average temperature change of 0.0073°F per year or 0.04 C per decade. Based on this I’m not too worried about climate change here. Might have to see if I can dig up the last 13 years of data.

I have entered “Watts Up With That?” traffic data into a highly refined normalizing simulation/prediction engine and have discovered that it is highly likely that by the the year 2023 Anthony’s traffic will have increased to daily hit rate so great that it will completely devour 99% of the projected global bandwidth of the internet.

Unless something is done immediately to mitigate Anthony’s relentless acquisition of internet traffic a tipping point will be reached by 2017, at which point his complete domination of the internet will be irreversible.

Polar bear web cams will become extinct. Email impossible, and the world wide web will drown in an ever rising ocean of “Watts Up With That” web site hits.

OFT question: I’m fascinated by real temperature across the globe, and I have been trying to find the “source” data where possible.

I found a number of sources, none so far really in the right format, but surely someone has collated “all” or a subset of “all” temperature records from ground-based temperature stations since they started recording?

I guess the ideal would be something like a database with:
– a table for the weather station – location etc, and a site ID
– a table with measurement type IDs – daily min; daily max; others?
– a much larger database with site ID, measurement ID, value

(Great if it had rainfall as well)

Anyone know if this exists, partially exists?

If not, can anyone point me towards the best sources for being able to create it?
Has anyone got an extraction program for some/all of the data sources so up to date temperature can be extracted?

Imho, there is no better blog in cyberspace, or any other space. I, for one, can appreciate the strength and courage it takes to ask the tough questions and to post what you think is relevant to the topic. Then to suffer the slings and barbs that come flying your way when you do that. I would also like to let you know that WUWT has brought my father and I closer together. He and I spend a good deal of time discussing the threads and postings. -We must smile in the face of adversity, and welcome it with a warm handshake. Then we ask adversity to reveal it’s methodology so it can be verified. Apparently adversity already knows what next months temperature anomaly is going to be. Who needs accurate data when you can come up with better numbers on your own? Keep on trucking (or zipping along quietly in your electric car) , Anthony !!!

Congratulations, Anthony!
And many kudos to you for being a steady, always rational presence in a turbulent (at times quite argumentative) discussion.
In my household, Chico is considered “the best place on Earth” (just ask my 4-year old who’s been taught that by my wife, CSU-Chico class of ’91), and you are a great online ambassador for the place.
All the best to you and your family for (the likely cool) 2009 and beyond,
David Y.
PS-My wife and I are looking at a vacation to one of the islands this year; maybe an urban heat island? ;-)

I have entered “Watts Up With That?” traffic data into a highly refined normalizing simulation/prediction engine and have discovered that it is highly likely that by the the year 2023 Anthony’s traffic will have increased to daily hit rate so great that it will completely devour 99% of the projected global bandwidth of the internet.

The only possible solution is a CAP and TRADE on web site hits.

We could set the price of web site hits to $20 per 1000. We’ll soon be Billionaires with all the traffic going on – just need to regulate it….

As a semi retired engineer, this site is really great for me as it provides real data that allows an understanding of climate change issues even though I am not schooled in the particular field. Now I consider this topic one of my hobbies. I was always a skeptic of the AGW claims since it became obvious to me that the MSM and politicians were exaggerating the issue just to make political point. WUWT provides the data to support my skepticism. I’m surprised that more people don’t realize when they are being scammed.

FYI I send your monthly UAH (etc) temperature plots to many of my friends and your presentations of the facts and data have converted others to becoming skeptics also. Hopefully the word can be spread via the internet to overcome the MSM distortions of the facts. It’s the ony hope we have to expose the fraud.

I check out your site often each day. Keep up the great work and hopefully enough of our fellow citizend can begin to realize the weak case on which the AGW’s are baseing their radical energy proposals. I firmly believe the anti CO2 crowd will kill the economy if allowed to take control of our energy policy.

Also want to thank all those who add thoughtful and informative posts that further my understanding of the complex science.

seems to have daily data for individual locations around the world for the last 10 years (the few that I’ve looked at). It’s not in a suitable format for automatic download and I’ve no idea if the data is reliable, but it might be a good place to start.

Mega Dittos on WUWT having record hits, Anthony and Team! Newcomer here, have just been on to this a few days, perhaps a couple of weeks. Fascinating stuff. And civil…so rare!

My forecast for 2009 has two parts. First, from a California perspective, is to watch for gathering storm clouds over Sacramento as CARB (California Air Resources Board) continues its mandated task of writing carbon-reduction rules for this state. Follow along at

They are going to prevent sea level rise and snowpack melting by command and control, and by cap and trade. Whether the place is cooling or not. And, without regard to any outside experts who point out how wrong the whole approach is. So there! Oh, and in particular without regard to how small the California contribution is to global man-made CO2 and other GHG emissions. (around 2 percent of the world’s man-made GHG on a good day.)

Second, from a U.S. of A. perspective, is to watch for thunder and lightning in Washington DC as Senators draft another version of the Climate Change bill, probably Boxer and Warner. The voice of reason may be drowned out, but at least we will make the attempt to be heard. We will see if facts carry any weight in the new administration. Very doubtful, given who the key advisors are.

I got a bunch of new sweaters for Christmas. Looks like it was just in the nick of time, too. Stay warm, yall. Throw another log on the fire. Oh wait, that is illegal now in many parts of California.

As a newcomer during 2008 to this blog, my congratulations and thanks to Anthony and his moderators. This blog is informative, interesting and amusing. Let us hope that 2009 reveals more about the hugely complex mechanism that is the Earth’s climate.

Dear Anthony: Congratiolations with the success of the site. The increasing traffic is for sure due to the quality of the content.
Thank you very much for all the effort to sort out the propaganda of the politically correct Global Warming Scientists.
Happy New Near from (cold and ice-scating)The Netherlands.

Excellent job both in maintaining the blog and also in keeping a calm, scientific view of things througout.

Another purely local bit of data for you – my own little Davis weather station in my backyard here on the east coast of Scotland showed a year average temperature of 9.3 C which is 0.4 C below the average for the past 4 years. The average annual temperature for 2004-2007 was pretty well flat at 9.7 C, so this year there has been a definite drop.

Anyone interested in more detailed data and some plots can look here. The ‘Archives’ link shows the data since mid-2003.

Congratulations Anthony. Before I was referred to your site this year I, like many others, did not realize the disparity between the the facts and what the Goreites are spewing on a daily basis. I thank you for providing scientific exposure to all of the models, predictions, opinions, guesses and just plain ‘ol lies being propagated in the mainstream media. Keep up the good work and hopefully we can eventually start to see/hear you on TV and Radio on a regular basis. After all, as David posted earlier, you will soon dominate internet traffic and need to widen your avenues of communication. Happy New Year!

Congratulations and well done … and a Happy New Year.
You’ve certainly convinced this non-scientific peasant of a lot of things he suspected all along.
And I bet Christopher Booker’s support hasn’t done you any harm, either!

Thank you everyone again including all the hard-working moderators… what a presence this blog represents…

I think that AGW is going to be like snow overloading a weak roof… scientists are steadily defecting… it’s going to cave in at some point, and there are going to be a lot of cold, wet, vulnerable people around… and some will probably react aggressively.

Root corruption in Science is a new animal – even though Bjorn Lomborg’s stats show that this root corruption is endemic in environmental science altogether – and nobody knows quite how to handle it. But with such websites, one can still live in hope.

It is a great shame that the Church of England Commissioners have not visited your site even once. From the link below, you will see that they are going to invest £150 million in Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management. If he were a religious man, he would refuse to take the money, from the widows and orphans upon which the money should be spent. As if that’s going to happen?

Hmmmm,
Where are the congratulations and thanks from the AGW faithful. This website also provides a platform for David and Mary and anyone who would like to speak. I would expect to see at least a small thank you from some who represent the other side of the debate. Perhaps some of them have already commented here and I just missed it…

“Steve Carson (21:23:12) :
OFT question: I’m fascinated by real temperature across the globe, and I have been trying to find the “source” data where possible.

I found a number of sources, none so far really in the right format, but surely someone has collated “all” or a subset of “all” temperature records from ground-based temperature stations since they started recording?

I guess the ideal would be something like a database with:
– a table for the weather station – location etc, and a site ID
– a table with measurement type IDs – daily min; daily max; others?
– a much larger database with site ID, measurement ID, value

(Great if it had rainfall as well)

Anyone know if this exists, partially exists?

If not, can anyone point me towards the best sources for being able to create it?
Has anyone got an extraction program for some/all of the data sources so up to date temperature can be extracted?

However, you could do a FOIA request to NASA to get all their climate numbers if you wish. You may not wish to get it, I downloaded the data from the 19 VA weather stations which was about 24,000 monthly data points, the world wide database has got to be enormous. The data above has been corrected for station movements, and other things. Raw data would be great but would require many man years of effort to clean up. I got the raw data for a couple of sites in WA state and it was really really bad.

Happy New Year from Slovenia, Mr Anthony, your team and all participants on this blog!

I am a retired mechanical engineer and for a long time I believed the story of AGW. OK, since many years ago I did not read the usual trash of slovenian left wing media (the legacy of the ex communist time) but I was subscribed to The Economist, New Scientist and Der Spiegel, believing their objectivity. I was even happy,expecting the climate to get milder in my home town. So far so that I even planted an olive tree in my garden!

However, after my retirenment, I decided to study this subject a little more. Now, I have colected a library of some 20 books, among them from Roy Spencer, Fred Singer, Henrik Svensmark etc. In addition, I am following related blogs in 7 languages (I very much like the blog of the Czech President Vaclav Klaus – the only intelectual and honest politician to openly speak his mind!) and so I discovered WUWT some months ago.

As a result, I became a convinced sceptic on AGW and WUWT is my dayly read.

Well, it does not look promissing about my producing olive oil at all!

A very happy (and prosperous) New Year to y’all. It’s been enlightening learning, sparring and even sometimes agreeing with all of you through the year. I echo the cheers for the moderators – a hard, thankless job – especially with the number of retired engineers (a hard-headed and sometimes stubborn bunch to be sure) that visit this site.

May you double your hits this year Anthony, I wouldn’t worry about the internet bandwidth limiting talk, what with all the dark fiber in the ground from the big telecommunications growth spurt in the 90’s. Someone will light it up and then we’ll have a larger pipe to send our missives through.

With a PDO shift and quiet sun, 2009 promises to be even more interesting, especially with the political classes busy regulating greenhouse gases while real world temperatures decline.

The disparity between political fantasy and climate reality should provide more than enough material to drive your viewer numbers even higher, as more people seek a rational explanation for the disparity between what that they see and what they are being told they should see.

Congratulations, Anthony and thank you for bringing a such a wide variety of climate and weather topics to the attention of your viewers.

I particularly enjoy the “How not to measure temperature” posts as they always generate comments that show the wit, wisdom, and intelligence of your readers. They’re fun, informative, and a periodic reminder that good science is built on good data.

Anthony, I want to 2nd, 3rd, and unanimously pass into the record your statement above; “Thanks especially to the moderating team who keeps the temperature of this blog down whilst I think up new topics.”

The moderating team not only has a deft touch but is so devoted to keeping the posts flowing that posts appear about as close as possible to being in real time. The back and forth when a good discussion gets going is rarely delayed. (Don’t they ever sleep?!?!)

And I’ll keep coming back due to the quality of your posters. Awesome! I learn quite a bit and all of their “This is off topic, but…” posts dig up some really astute observations (eg Jeff Id, recently) that make this blog a must read.

Happy New Year to all and thank you Anthony, the moderating team, and the commenters on this blog!

I’ve found the people on this blog to be very helpful, providing links to, and emailing directly, publications that answer the questions I’ve asked. The discussion here is largely polite, direct, science-driven, and mostly on-topic.

Tamino’s page, however, is rude, obnoxious, and close-minded. Why would any skeptic go there and ask a reasonable question, or point out a logical flaw, when the only response is to be vilified, and called names? One person there even went the extra childish mile to make fun of my last name. It is not a scientific discussion of the ideas on their merits – it’s a cliquey flamefest.

I believe that good work gets rewarded, and the influx of traffic and interest in this site is a sure indication of that. This site welcomes all kinds – scientists, laymen, heathens and mystics. The discussion is open, the debate is lively, and I can’t recall any widespread name-calling. A big round of applause to Anthony and his moderators for creating one of the most intelligent discussion forums on the internet.

Just to say Happy New Year to Anthony and all those who contribute to this excellent blog. I live in the UK, where AGW is apparently our State Religion now, so it’s very pleasant indeed to visit a site like this – long live climate heresy!

Congrats, Anthony, and keep up the good work! Nothing succeeds like success.
Tamino and his ilk are obviously jealous, as well as enraged that more and more people are realizing that AGW is just a huge fraud. With the amount of cherry picking he does, he could go into the pie-making business.

I also think this is the best thing since baked bread. Thanks to Anthony, the moderators, the skeptics, the AGW crowd, the scientists, and all the other folks from the general population who love to learn by participating in these discussions. Taken all together, this blog is the tops. I have learned so much since joining. Some of the topics that have been a steep learning curve for me: The Sun, ocean currents, our atmosphere, the jet stream, orbit wiggles and tilt, magnetic anything, greenhouse gases (or in my case right now, greenhouse flakes), sea ice behavior, atmospheric particulates from natural sources as well as from pollution sources, and not least, human behavior related to the bandwagon phenomenon.

Happy new year, and congratulations with the success. I think it is maybe a sign that a lot of people have grown tired of what the tabloids have to say in this matter. I have been following this site since the “Where have all the sunspots gone?” post nearly a year ago, and clearly they are still gone, and I’m still here…

Please keep it all coming, 2008 was maybe the year when AGW was disproven, let 2009 be the year when the majority figures it out :-)

Have you ever considered putting advertisements on this blog? With all the hits you are now getting this has become an attractive blog to advertisers. The income from advertising dollars could help you a lot because I’ve read in a couple of your posts that you can’t spend as much time here now with the economy the way it is. Maybe advertising dollars would free you up to be here, who knows, possibly full time!

Also, with extra money you could advertise WattsUpWithThat on other web sites like Drudge.com. This would increase your hits and get the word out that there is another side to the global warming story.

Congratulations Anthony on a great, (mainly) balanced and very informative site.

And Thank you. I found your blog early in the year, when I started to take a real interest in the AGW question. Reading your site has led to me (as a total non scientist) actually start studying the subject properly. I, and I expect many others, have discovered that climate is a very wide and complex subject. It is just a shame that nobody seems to be able to communicate even that much to politicians.

Because of media hype, the misinformation and lack of information that the general public hold is unbelievable. I mean, if you asked the ‘Average person’ how much CO2 there is in the atmosphere, what answer would you get? I bet it wouldn’t be less than 10%.

Thanks again. At least your site is getting more and more people some proper information.

My thoughts at the time: What is that fool doing painting a Stevenson screen with latex paint and blogging about it! Well I am still here every day and enjoying every minute of it. This blog is so good by itself, but the comments make it important as a calm and factual discussion of the weather patterns that make up the global climate.

Thanks for that! I had to spend a little time there to educate myself about him and his views, and I must admit being quite shocked to read his reasons for relying on GISS data (in his reply to “b_sharp”). I will not repeat his use of language, but note that his reasons are
1. They are from the USA
2. They interpolate the arctic rather than omit it.
3. It makes den**lists “unhappy” (his words were less diplomatic…)

None of these are valid scientific reasons, in fact they are totally un-scientific. The first seems like an odd argument as seen by anyone outside the US (like me). The second one is a “hair-raiser”: invented data is preferred over no data? The third argument demonstrates a complete lack of integrity.

None of these are valid scientific reasons, in fact they are totally un-scientific. The first seems like an odd argument as seen by anyone outside the US (like me). The second one is a “hair-raiser”: invented data is preferred over no data? The third argument demonstrates a complete lack of integrity.

Why does this less-than-serious person get so much attention?

Because we keep talking about him. I refuse to go to any of the links posted here for his site for precisely that reason. You’re giving him more attention by discussing him and posting links to his page (since site hits denote popularity…)

World history this is. I wish for you that all aspect of driving this site will succeed also in the years to come. I wish everybody around you understands and gives a hand. Im sure its sometimes up the hill. But i am sure its worth it :-). Thanks!

Jeff, Carsten, I agree. But in fact sites like his and Gavin Schmidt’s are totally counter-productive to their cause. Just direct any real scientist to spend a few hours on either and they will be sickened that science is reduced to such a gutter level of debate and censorship of opposing views.

Real science delights when models don’t match reality because that is when discoveries are made. Real science delights when the best brains from either side debate and challenge each other. Censorship of the half the story is a complete turnoff and utterly boring.

Unfortunately now we have a group on a crusade to save the world and the last thing they want to hear is any evidence the world might not need saving.

Congratulations Anthony and the moderators. I spend more time on WUWT each day than I care to admit. Keep up the great work and best wishes for a successful 2009 from Down Under
Neil Crafter
Adelaide, South Australia

Ed Darrell, interesting chart on glaciers indeed. Although no source for it.

Note the following,

Up until 1970 the chart shows that glaciers were accumulating ice.

The rate of glacier melt is remarkable stable apart from a step change up in the mid-1990s, following Mt Pinatubo and preceding the 1998 super El Nino.

Volcanic eruptions result in a pronounced reduction in melt in the following year or so. Which lends weight to the argument that what is different climate-wise about the last few decades is that we are long overdue for a mag 7+ volcanic eruption.

The cumulative glacier loss plot is ‘rhetorical device’ to impress those who do not understand basic statistics, and is there to decieve them into thinking there is an accelerating trend. When in fact there is no evidence of any significant trend (never mind accelerating). Just a step change in the mid 90s.

Chart referred to,

BTW, the accompanying article is typical Warmer rhetorical excess, with little scientific support (if this graph is typical of the article as a whole).

Anthony,
May I wish you and your colleagues all the warmest wishes for 2009. I know we don’t see eye to eye on the majority of subjects but I thank you for allowing me to state an opposing case without censorship. This is why I, and many others, keep coming back.
I would like to give warmest wishes to those regulars that have given good references to various subjects. Thanks to Leif specially, I know a lot more about the sun than this time last year.

So best wishes to all, Anthony keep the blog going and lets carry on with the meaty debates!

Re. soil (03:29:22) :
—
I guess this alexa.com comparison is well known but since I have’nt seen it posted here, looks like a good moment to do:

—
Easy to spot the RC graph, it has the sharp up-tick at the end. :)

My thanks for this site and the efforts to keep it an open debating forum. I started at RC having become concerned but then noted that all too often in my opinion the use of personal attacks when differing views are dealt with. So now spend altogether too much time at this site, Icecap and ClimateAudit. :)

I’ve been a avid reader since about March or June or….oh how time flies!

Terry Ward (07:50:43) :

The graph correlates with CO2 as measured at Mauna Loa.

This blog is the cause of global warming.

I am highly skeptical of that correlation. Although not statistically quantified or peer-reviewed, I am sure there is a higher inverse correlation between WUWT hits and global cooling since blog inception. I take great satisfaction knowing that every time I open WUWT I contribute .00000001degrees C to aid in cooling our planet. But then, I is stupiderer :<).

Hey, no fair, does this mean that Evan and I can’t post quotes from “The Hunting of the Snark?” At least you didn’t include “sans frumious”.

Mary, I’ve seen too many organizations turn into mobs full of self importance who run off in leaderless direction. We always need a few naysayers like you and Leif to remind us to think first, write second. I don’t suppose you and Leif get mentioned together in too many sentences.

When you decide we’re right after all, be sure to bring in a replacement. :-)

Congratulations Anthony, you deserve it. This is a great blog. Congratulations as well for becoming a finalist for the 2008 Weblog “Best Science Blog” award. Romm goes off on quite a rant about this today at climate progress. He goes so far as to recommend against his readers voting for RC saying: “Much as I’d love to recommend voting for RealClimate, the smart money has to be on voting for last year’s co-winner — Bad Astronomy Blog”. I’ll bet Gavin is steamed. Good.